Liu Yuanshou 1967 | Chinese Realist painter

Liu Yuanshou [劉元壽], chinese Realist painter, was born in Beijing in 1967. He earned a degree in oil painting from the Capital Normal University of Beijing in 1991, and has exhibited in and won awards in many prestigious exhibitions throughout Asia, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. While Liu Yuanshou hails from the austere north of China, he has become fascinated by the seductively temperate cultural and physical climate of the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, which lies east of Anhui and north of Shanghai.
Silkworm culture is and always has been an important part of Jiangsu's history, as is the production of silk textiles. Perhaps because of this circumstance, silk is especially evident in Liu's art, which primarily focuses on portraits of young women from the Jiangsu region.

Kamille Corry 1966 | American Figurative painter

Kamille Corry was born in 1966 in Houston, Texas. Her art education took place primarily in Florence, Italy from 1987 to 1990 where she pursued etching studies at Il Bisonte and drawing and painting at Studio Cecil-Graves. Corry also trained extensively with painter D. Jeffrey Mims in Florence and North Carolina. She was later an assistant instructor to Mims at The Florence Academy's summer workshop.

Paul Knight 1965 | British Realist painter

Born in 1965, Paul Knight currently studying Fine Art at Nottingham University.

Michelle Seo - Hongmin | American Pencil Artist | The Golden Era

I started the project Golden Era at the end of July 2009 with my past Hollywood actresses drawings and i'm so happy and excited to see all of 12 ladies right in front of me... there were some times i wanted to quit being tired and lazy.

Humphrey Bogart

Nikolaos Gysis 1842-1901 | Greek Munich School

Nikolaos Gysis [Νικόλαος Γύζης] è stato uno dei massimi esponenti della cosiddetta "Scuola di Monaco", il principale movimento pittorico greco della seconda metà del XIX secolo. Le sue opere hanno come tema principale la vita quotidiana, e spesso quello della famiglia e dei bambini. Figlio di Ounofrios Gysis, un domestico, e della sua sposa Margarita Psalti, si trasferì con la sua famiglia nel 1850 ad Atene dove frequentò la scuola delle belle arti. Grazie ad una borsa di studio poté continuare i suoi studi in Germania all'Accademia delle belle arti di Monaco, città dove si trasferì a vivere. Nel 1872 tornò ad Atene dove soggiornò alcuni anni, conoscendo anche quella che nel 1877 diventerà sua moglie, Artémis Nazos. In questo periodo trasformò la casa paterna in un atelier d'arte. Sempre in questi anni compì alcuni viaggi assieme all'amico Nikephoros Lytras, in Asia Minore ed a Parigi. Nel 1882 tornò a vivere, stavolta definitivamente, a Monaco dove nel 1886 ottenne un posto da professore nell'Accademia. Morì di leucemia il 4 gennaio 1901 a Monaco, dove è anche sepolto.

Sergey Kustarev 1973 | Russian Realist painter

Sergey Kustarev [Сергей Кустарев] born in Bryansk on 1973. 1993 - graduated from the Bryansk Art College. 1994 / 1999- volunteer in the artistic-industrial academy Mukhina. 2002 - member of the Union of Artists. Technique - Realistic paintings in conjunction with interior decoration, simulating metal. His works are in private collections in Russia and abroad.

Djordje Prudnikoff 1939 | Realist painter with classical training

Djordje Prudnikoff [Ђорђе Прудников] is a russo-serbian painter, graphic artist, and designer, championed as one of the greatest and most original contemporary artists to emerge from the former Yugoslavia. It was the hand of God that joined a serbian woman and a russian man, who had come to Serbia as boy, with his parents, after the October Revolution in Russia. So, on April 19th 1939. in Uzice, they got their son Djordje - Djordje Prudnikov.

In 1946, the family moved to Belgrade. After completing his grammar school, Djordje was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts. Few months later he left it to enroll at the Academy of Applied Arts where he graduated in the class of Professor Mihailo Petrov. During his studies Prudnikoff was rewarded several times for graphic design. Graphic industrial design was his preoccupation while staying in Wienna, in 1967.

Immaculada Juarez 1975 | Spanish Realist painter

Formada en la Escuela de Arte Fernando Estevez de Tenerife y la prestigiosa Escola Massana de Arte Moderno, de Barcelona.
Depurado estilo realista. Enmarcada dentro del realismo mágico. Trabaja con la Sala Conca (Tenerife) y la Galería Xerión (Coruña). Fundadora del Colectivo Artistico Rincón del Atril, profesora de Dibujo, Pintura y terapias artísticas y miembro de varias sociedades de Ilustración y Diseño. En la actualidad reside en Madrid e imparte clases de Arte.

Edward Hopper 1882-1967 | American Realist painter

Edward Hopper, considerato il migliore pittore realista americano del XX secolo, è stato un pittore statunitense famoso soprattutto per i suoi ritratti della solitudine nella vita americana contemporanea. Il successo ottenuto con una mostra di acquerelli 1923 e con un'altra di dipinti 1924 contribuiscono a fare di Hopper il caposcuola dei realisti che dipingevano la "scena americana". La sua evocativa vocazione artistica si rivolge sempre più verso un forte realismo, che risulta la sintesi della visione figurativa combinata con il sentimento struggente e poetico che Hopper percepisce nei suoi soggetti. Diceva: "non dipingo quello che vedo, ma quello che provo".
Predilige immagini urbane o rurali, immerse nel silenzio; i suoi spazi sono reali ma in essi c'è qualcosa di metafisico, senza alcun accostamento alla corrente italiana, che comunica allo spettatore un forte senso di inquietudine. La composizione dei quadri è talora geometrizzante, sofisticato il gioco delle luci fredde, taglienti e volutamente "artificiali", sintetici i dettagli. La scena è spesso deserta; raramente vi è più di una figura umana, e quando ve ne è più di una, sembra emergere una drammatica estraneità e incomunicabilità tra i soggetti che ne accentua la dolorosa solitudine. Di lui è stato detto che sapeva "dipingere il silenzio". Hopper utilizzò composizioni e tagli fotografici simili a quelli degli impressionisti, che aveva visto dal vero, come si è detto, a Parigi all'inizio del Novecento, ma di fatto il suo stile fu personalissimo e imitato a sua volta da cineasti e fotografi.
Nel 1937 Hopper acquista una casa a Truro (Massachusetts), nella penisola di Cape Cod, dove da allora iniziò a passare regolarmente i mesi estivi. Il paesaggio di Cape Cod, con le sue dune, case e fari, si ritrova in molti suoi dipinti, come The House on The Hill, Cape Cod Evening o Cape Cod Morning. Nel 1933 il Museum of Modern Art di New York gli dedica la prima retrospettiva e il Whitney Museum of American Art, la seconda nel 1950.

Gianluca Mantovani 1974 | Italian realist painter

Gianluca Mantovani è nato nel 1974 a Livorno, città dove vive e opera.

Nel 2004, spinto dall'innata passione per il disegno e raggiunta una maturità personale, inizia da autodidatta a cimentarsi nella pittura ad olio.

Livorno, città dei macchiaioli, lo avvicina inizialmente all'impressionismo: le prime opere risentono infatti fortemente di tali caratteristiche ma la sua ricerca artistica e la sperimentazione lo hanno spinto ad avvicinarsi ad altri stili, fino all'incontro con il suo maestro Bruno Di Maio. Avvicinandosi alla pittura realista trova quella che considera l'espressione artistica a lui più congeniale. La ricerca della perfezione nella realizzazione dal vero diventa fonte di stimolo e soddisfazione personale e ciò gli permette di mettere a frutto la sua abilità nel riprodurre particolari nel figurativo.

Dick Pieters 1941 | Dutch Fantastic Realism painter

Born in Zierikzee 1941.
Studied in 1966 and 1967 at the High Institute of Painting in Antwerpen.
Since 1993 his works are represented at the prestigious Art Collection of ING.
Pieters lives and works in Oostburg.
His paints realistic fantasy scenes with a decorative element and a dream-like atmosphere.

Édouard Manet 1832-1883 | French Realist/Impressionist Painter

Édouard Manet nato in una famiglia borghese, dopo gli studi classici si arruolò in Marina. Respinto agli esami, decise di iniziare la carriera artistica. Dal 1850 al 1856 studiò presso il pittore accademico Couture, pur non condividendone gli insegnamenti. Viaggiò molto in Italia, Olanda, Germania, Austria, studiando soprattutto i pittori che avevano scelto il linguaggio tonale quali Giorgione, Tiziano, gli olandesi del Seicento, Goya e Velazquez. Notevole influenza ebbe sulla definizione del suo stile anche la conoscenza delle stampe giapponesi. Nell’arte giapponese, infatti, il problema della simulazione tridimensionale viene quasi sempre ignorato, risolvendo la figurazione solo con la linea di contorno sul piano bidimensionale.
Manet è stato un pittore poco incline alle posizioni avanguardistiche. Egli voleva giungere al rinnovamento della pittura operando all’interno delle istituzioni accademiche. E, per questo motivo, egli, pur essendo il primo dei pittori moderni, non espose mai con gli altri pittori impressionisti. Rimase sempre su posizione individuale e solitaria anche quando i suoi quadri non furono più accettati dalla giuria del Salon.
Le sue prime opere non ebbero problemi ad essere accettate. La rottura con la critica avvenne solo dopo il 1863, quando Manet propose il quadro «La colazione sull’erba». In questa tela sono già evidenti i germi dell’impressionismo. Manet aveva abbandonato del tutto gli strumenti classici del chiaroscuro e della prospettiva per proporre un quadro realizzato con macchie di colori puri e stesi uniformemente. In esso, tuttavia, l’occhio riesce a cogliere una simulazione spaziale precisa se osservato ad una distanza non ravvicinata.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1825-1905 | French academic painter

Bouguereau was a staunch traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on the female human body. In his own time, Bouguereau was considered to be one of the greatest painters in the world by the Academic art community, and simultaneously he was reviled by the avant-garde. He also gained wide fame in Belgium, Holland, Spain, and in the United States, and commanded high prices. Bouguereau’s career was a nearly straight up ascent with hardly a setback. To many, he epitomized taste and refinement, and a respect for tradition. To others, he was a competent technician stuck in the past. Degas and his associates used the term “Bouguereauté” in a derogatory manner to describe any artistic style reliant on “slick and artificial surfaces”, also known as a licked finish. In an 1872 letter, Degas wrote that he strove to emulate Bouguereau’s ordered and productive working style, although with Degas’ famous trenchant wit, and the aesthetic tendencies of the Impressionists, it is possible the statement was meant to be ironic. Bouguereau’s works were eagerly bought by American millionaires who considered him the most important french artist of that time. But after 1920, Bouguereau fell into disrepute, due in part to changing tastes and partly to his staunch opposition to the Impressionists who were finally gaining acceptance. For decades following, his name was not even mentioned in encyclopedias.

Miguel Avataneo 1962 | Argentina

Miguel Avataneo was born in the province of Cordoba in Argentina and his love of the pure form of classicism was nourished by his early interest in the Italian masters: Corregio, Giorgione 1478-1510, Raphael 1483-1520 and Titian 1488/90-1576. He was also greatly influenced by the late eighteenth century french paintings of David, Gustave Courbet 1819-1877 and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1780-1867. Recognizing the influences implicit in his training, but striving to build upon the discipline it gave him, he has created a world of pictorial imagery entirely his own. The unusual intensity of his art takes him far beyond the borders of South America and places him in a broader international artistic community. In 1988, he graduated from La Escuela de artes de la Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. He has had many successful individual exhibitions since 1988 and has obtained distinctions too numerous to list. His elegant and thought provoking studies are instantly recognizable with collectors. At first viewing of Avataneo's artwork, we catch our breath at images so little anticipated. His paintings are so rich, yet so serene, and so forceful, yet so tender. His figures have a stately passivity and appear suspended between day and night. He is able to give to his dreams the status of reality.

Damiano Taurino 1949 | Italian realist sculptor

Nasce nel 1949 a Galugnano, frazione del comune di San Donato di Lecce, la magnifica terra del Salento, ricca di tradizioni storiche millenarie risalenti alle antiche civiltà greca e messapica (1.000 a.c.). Questa terra, con il suo patrimonio storico-culturale, riesce ad inculcare nel giovane Damiano, la voglia segreta del modellare, la capacità di estrarre, da un pezzo di creta, immagini e figure incantevoli. All'età di 16 anni emigra in Svizzera, si stabilisce ad Horgen-Zurigo e trascorre un periodo dedicato alla formazione scolastica e professionale. Nel 1981 rientra in Italia e prende residenza a Cesena, dove tuttora vive e lavora. Qui si dedica, a tempo pieno, alla sua passione nativa, alla scultura e, in particolare, alla modellazione della creta. Il suo lavoro artistico non segue indirizzi prestabiliti perché è caratterizzato da una forte originalità, la quale si esprime non in forme astratte o impersonali, ma concrete e segnate da un realismo vivo, intenso. Nelle figure scolpite da Taurino l'osservatore riesce a cogliere movenze, atteggiamenti, posture che sanno comunicare il dinamismo della vita moderna, i sogni, le gioie e le speranze di cui l'animo umano è portatore.

Brenda Burke | England | Classical realist painter

Internationally recognized as a brilliant and sensitive portrait painter, classically trained in Europe, Brenda Burke sees every aspect of life as a creative challenge. Her collectors avidly wait for each new series she creates, as she applies the various skills of the old masters to create fresh and exciting contemporary masterpieces. She embellishes figure studies with raised gold and platinum leaf, creates magnificent flower pieces in tempera with oil glazes. Encaustics give dazzling effect to backgrounds for semi-nudes, who are often wrapped in the antique lace she finds a constant inspiration. Brenda Burke divides her time between her homes in New Orleans and England.

David Gray 1970 | Classical realist painter

David Gray acquired a strong foundational education in art while obtaining his BFA from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. His art education has continued with independent and occasional formal studies in pictorial expression and oil painting. The resulting work reveals a personal and contemporary expression of beauty and order which pays homage to the Classical Tradition in its craftsmanship. David's works are included in many discriminating private art collections throughout the United States and abroad. Recent honors include the "Hunter Edition's Award of Excellence" at the Oil Painters of America 2009 National Exhibit and a "Chairman's Choice" award in Art Renewal Center's 2008/2009 International ARC Salon.

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse 1824-1887 | French sculptor

Carrier-Belleuse trained as a goldsmith before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1840 under the sponsorship of Pierre-Jean David d’Angers. He only stayed there for a short time before switching to the Petite Ecole to study decorative arts. Carrier-Belleuse worked in London from 1850-1855, designing ceramics and metalwork models for companies. Beginning in 1857, he exhibited large sculptures at the Salon and received medals and important commissions. From 1851-1870, Emperor Napoleon III hired him to work on the rebuilding of Paris. Carrier-Belleuse’s work incorporated a variety of styles and influences including Naturalism, Realism, neo-Baroque, and Rococo. He employed many pupils such as Auguste Rodin 1840-1917 in his large workshop that produced series, editions, and variations of his sculptures. He was also the father and teacher of Pierre Carrier-Belleuse 1851-1933.

Will Wilson 1957 | Realist american painter

Wilson began his career with the John Pence Gallery in 1980. Since then, he staged thirteen highly successful one-man shows at the gallery. In addition to his shows in San Francisco, he has exhibited with Baltimore Life Gallery, Baltimore, MD; Schuler School Of Fine Arts, Baltimore, MD; Salmagundi Club, New York, NY; St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, MD; Society of Illustrators, New York, NY; Denver Rotary Show, Denver, CO; Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Memorial Art Museum, Rochester, NY; The Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, NY, The National Postal Museum, Washington DC; The Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA; and The Smithsonian, Washington DC. Wilson is a master of his painting craft. He creates between 8-10 works each year, ranging in size from 9x10 inches to 70x50 inches. He paints portraits, allegorical figures, trompe l'oeil, and still life layered with narrative. His paintings are tight and precise. For Wilson, it is important to observe, then render all of his subjects in the greatest detail. His work is often whimsical and fantastic, a unique marriage of disciplined execution and a boundless, blossoming imagination. Each of his works contains contemporary references, addressing a multitude of ideas embedded in his meticulously crafted compositions. Wilson has been awarded prizes for his paintings in New York, Maryland, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Missouri, and Washington DC. His works have been acquired by museums, well-known corporate collections, and private collectors of note. Numerous publications including: ArtNews, US ART Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Magazine, American Artist and International Artist Magazine have singled out Wilson in articles setting forth his presence as a major force on the American art scene.

Auguste Rodin 1840-1917 | Romantic and Realistic french sculptor

Auguste Rodin's realist works created a new era in sculpture. Known as Auguste Rodin, François-Auguste-René Rodin, was a romantic and realistic french sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to change his style. Successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community. From the unexpected realism of his first major figure, inspired by his 1875 trip to Italy, to the unconventional memorials whose commissions he later sought, Rodin's reputation grew, such that he became the preeminent French sculptor of his time. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought Rodin's work after his World's Fair exhibit, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. He married his life-long companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculptures suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, but within a few decades, his legacy solidified. Rodin remains one of the few sculptors widely known outside the visual arts community.